The Clichés are Just Rolling in.

Tori stands in front of a suit of armor that Silver had placed in her room, her eyes running up and down as if she was checking out a girl. She places a hand on it, the cool feeling of metal meets her hand, and her eyes sparkle. The small maid that had led her to Silver's office was now standing next to her, waiting for her to try on the armor.

It only takes her a few minutes of looking before she puts it on. She was surprised to find that the armor fitted her perfectly, but after only a few seconds of admiring herself, she walked over to the maid and grabbed the sword from her arms.

She took a second to admire the scabbard before unsheathing it. She took a few moments to admire how the sword caught the light from the windows. She then brought the sword down, cutting it into a table as if it was butter. "Wow..." She whispered to herself. "This must be the trickster's blessing."

She quickly sheathed the sword and looked over at the maid. "Silver said he would be leading me to the carriage? Where is he?" She asks. The maid only shrugged her shoulders before pulling out a chair for her to sit on. Tori happily sat down, placing her sword down onto the ground.

"You know." Tori starts, locking eyes with the maid. "You know... I don't think you've ever spoken to me. Are you a mute perhaps." The maid nods her head as she starts to make some tea, trying to escape the questioning. "Is it by choice?" She asks. The maid only pauses for a second, her hands shaking before she regains her composure and puts a square of sugar into the tea, shaking her head no.

"Well, that's good," Tori jokes, accepting the tea. She took a sip before turning her head to look out of the window. She lets herself admire the view of the complex below her. She smiles, watching a small train deliver goods in and out of the building.

Then an explosion rocked the left side of the factory causing her to jump and look out of the window. She stares down at the fume of smoke before seeing Nox walking out, coughing at the smoke. She relaxes and sits back down, happy to learn it was just one of Nox's failed experiments.

"Sorry, I'm late, my dear hero." Tori turned to face a Nicely dressed Silver. "Don't worry, it wasn't a long wait." She responds by walking out of the room with him, leaving the maid to clean the spilled tea.

"Silver," Tori asks, feeling a bit anxious. "Don't you feel I should have some training before I'm sent out?" Silver rubs his chin and shakes his head. "We could give you some time to practice, but this would leave our line unmanned."

"Yes but.." Silver places his hand on her back and looks at her calmly. "I think I forgot to tell you the reason I picked you." Tori calms down and looks over. "You picked me?" She asks innocently. "Yes. I picked you because of your strength. Hero's from other worlds are always stronger than those from our world. You were the best of the best from your world."

"Really?"

"Would I lie to you, Tori? I see potential in you. You can be a hero." He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a picture of a knight standing over a town and hands it to her. "Think about it. A hero, not a prodigy, endorsed by the king comes out of nowhere and single-handedly manages to turn the tide of war to her favor."

"Tori's eyes turn down to the paper, not noticing Silver's creepy smile. "They'll be calling your name, books will be written about you, men..." He sees her smile reduce and quickly change the tune. "Girls will love you. You'll be famous."

"A hero." She whispers, a smile blooming on her face. Now was her chance, she thinks to herself. I'll have everything the old me never could have. Fame, power... girls?

Tori turns her head and is surprised to see that they were in a weird-looking carriage. She could tell that it was a car due to it still looking like one, except it was decked out in all sorts of devices. There seemed to be a steam-powered engine hooked to the wheels that occasionally blew steam out the back.

"Wow... I know you said you focused on technology but this is impressive." She says hopping into the carriage. "Yes, we learned that steam was a very good and easy source of power. "This car will take you to the battlefield in 12 hours. I hope you come back safely."

Tori smiles and beckons for the driver to go. He smiles at the girl and presses down the petal, lurching the car forward. Tori took a few seconds to admire the world around her. She saw people dressed in what she could only describe as a mixture of Steampunk and medieval attire. It only now struck her how far she was from her element. Everything was so different from her world and even some manga that she had read.

Although looking more like a carriage, there were only a few cars on the road, instead, she saw kids playing games such as ball and an older version of basketball with actual peach baskets. Although she felt nervous she couldn't stop feeling lonely. Everyone had something she could never feel or have. The more she thought about it the more greed she felt go through her. The only thing she could think of was how she could get that. How she could become their hero.

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Nox was surprised to see that the inside of the pit was just that. A large pit that seemed to go down forever. Etched into the sides of the pit were large rooms that housed entire factory floors. Workers seemed to run around the pit as if it were more of an anthill than a factory, only protected by a thin railing that ran around the rings.

"This is my type of place." He remarks as he walks into the pit, admiring just how large it was. While walking past one of the desks he notices what he can only describe as a key card and swiftly snags it off the desk as he walks past. He smiles and uses it to open an elevator leading him down to the bottom floor. Before the elevator reaches the bottom floor a girl gets on. The girl was of Asian descent and had long peach light brown hair put up in a ponytail. She wears a long blue military jacket with it reaching to her ankles. She has black military-style boots with camouflage pants tucked into them.

They both sat in silence before Nox decided to start a conversation. "So," he mutters. "That's a fancy get-up you're wearing there. May I ask where I get my mistakes?"

"Shiki." The girl says, straightening her outfit. "And you don't just get this outfit, you earn it. Like I had to." Nox smiles and takes out a cigarette from his pocket. 'Hey, don't tell my friend Tori, but I've been smoking these in secret. Would you like one?"

The girl looks confused but accepts it."How strange, this looks like a cigar but it's so much smaller. Nox places one in his mouth and lights it before handing her his lighter. "Yeah, this is the good shit."

Shiki lights up her cigarette and looks over at him. "So stranger, may I ask what your name is, and why you are also hauling your ass to the bottom level." Nox leans back on the wall and assesses his situation before sighing. "My name is Nox, the reason for me heading to the bottom floor is the same reason you hear Miss soldier."

"How did you..?" nox holds up his hand and points to the badge on her jacket. "Rookie move.' She grunts nearly, pulling out a knife and pointing it at his neck. "I guess you're also not a soldier of this country. I also don't think you're from the west kingdom... That leaves an outside force?"

"Do you want to die?" She says through gritted teeth. "You have no self-preservation, and even at the brink of death you won't shut your mouth." Nox only shrugs his shoulders and points to the floor sign showing that they were ten floors away. "Not dumb my friend, just reckless and willing to put my life on the line for information."

Shiki puts her knife away and turns around. "That doesn't explain why you're not scared of death. Not even a hint of fear in your eyes." Nox walks next to her and smiles. "It's because I'm obviously in a simulation or at the minimum a dream."

"I see," She says, rolling her eyes at him. 'Yout crazy." Nox wags his finger and points at his head. "If it's not some elaborate dream I'm having then the only correct answer was is dumb."

Shiki looks at him for a few seconds and shakes her head. "Whatever man. Let's just go our separate ways." She quickly steps out of the elevator once it arrives at the bottom floor, leaving Nox standing alone. He looks at her confused and walks out of the elevator and down the hallway. "Damn, not even a goodbye... she was cute though."

It takes him a few moments to get to a large door that seemed to be isolated as far 

down as it could be. Nox walks in and is surprised to see that the room leads to a large personal forging room. He runs his finger over the table and finds that there was a good amount of dust covering it.

"Good, now that I have a workplace all I need's an elevator that leads to my room and I'll have a private workplace. As much as Nox wanted to spend the day in the room he decided that it would be better to head back up to the main floor to do some more snooping.

The elevator ride back to the pit was boring. Despite still having his phone on him, without having wifi or any satellites it would be worthless to try and use it. Once the door opened he walked out into what could only be described as chaos. People were running around the floor like ants, which only made his anthill analogy even better.

He reached his arm out and grabbed somebody from there. "Sir, do you mind telling me why everyone is freaking out?" He asked the man. "S-Somebody planted a bomb on one of the floors. They Are threatening to blow the entire pit if their demands aren't met."

A tingle goes down Nox's spine as he realizes that Shiki was the one who planted the bomb. "And their demands?" He asks. "T-They want everybody out of the pit for 2 hours. We have no clue why though, but I'm only an intern." HE says as he rises out the front door.

Nox looks down at his watch and sighs. "Why is this unfolding like a dumb cliche? Well, I guess it is my dream." He says walking once again into the elevator. "To floor 56 we go." He says, swiping the card for what he hoped was the last time.